Well I am not sure how big a sample group they had but it seems that the survivors of the Spanish flu of 1918 are immune to this years Swine Flu Pandemic.

University of Wisconsin researcher Yoshihiro Kawaok has discovered that survivors of the 1918 flu pandemic are immune to the current swine flu pandemic, although they are not necessarily immune to seasonal flu (Associated Press).

This seems to confirm further that the 1918 pandemic and the current swine flu are both anomalies; they are more similar in presentation to each other than either one is to seasonal flu. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: antibodies, healthiest immune systems, initial illness, New York Times, pneumonia, researcher, secondary infection, Swine Flu, University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, Yoshihiro Kawaok

I try to get my kids out as much as possible to exercise, especially during our long northern winters. The following study gives me an excuse to talk about how we can keep our kids active and more healthy and this is a good way to combat the problem of childhood obesity

According to a recent study submitted today at the American Heart Association’s conference in Florida, children at risk of being overweight who live in close proximity to parks, green spaces or recreational areas are more physically active. The new ongoing Canadian study is exploring the link between park proximity and walking.

The children included in the study are all exposed to a potential risk for future weight problems because one of their parents is obese. To evaluate the effects of environment on obesity, the families will be monitored over the next ten years, or until subjects turn eighteen. To date, the researchers have established that girls live close to parks are motivated to walk to school, while boys seem to be like walking in their free time. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: American Heart Association, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Florida, obesity, researcher, Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center, school Lead author professor, sports fields, Tracie A. Barnett

A couple of weeks ago I got my annual Flu Shot. I know that some people do not bother with a flu shot because let’s face it no one wants to get a shot and every year people still get the flu even when they get a shot.

Well let me tell you, the flu shot is worth getting, most of the time out of the multiple strains of the flu out there the scientists get the flu shot just right to stop many of us from getting sick later in the fall and Winter

With flu season on the way, Google unveiled a new tool Tuesday dubbed Google Flu Trends, through the company’s philanthropic wing, Google.org. The new Web tool takes data from search queries and crunches the information to paint a real-time picture of the level of influenza infection in a given area of the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: christmas, Google, influenza, Internet users, real-time picture, researcher, search engine, search engine researcher, search queries, search terms, search trends, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States, Web tool

Dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids was associated with a lower incidence of autoantibodies in the blood that signal the immune system to attack insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Omega-3 fatty acids are known to have anti-inflammatory properties, and inflammation is believed to play a major role in the development of type 1 diabetes through destruction of these insulin-producing cells.

“The thinking is that omega-3 may increase the body’s ability to fight the inflammation that leads to type 1 diabetes,” researcher Jill M. Norris, MPH, PHD announced yesterday.

“This is a preliminary study,” she says. “We really can’t make dietary recommendations based on these findings.”

The study appears in the Sept. 27 issue of TheJournal of the American Medical Association.

Omega-3, Diabetes Research
In adults, omega-3 rich diets are believed to lower cardiovascular risk, and in babies the fatty acid is believed to boost brain development.

A 2003 study from Norway was one of the first human trials to suggest a protective role for omega-3 fatty acids in type 1 diabetes. Researchers reported a lower incidence of omega-3-rich cod liver oil supplementation during infancy in children with diabetes, compared to children without the disease.

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Tags: American Medical Association, annual food-frequency questionnaires, canola oil, cod liver oil supplementation, diabetes, diabetes_research, dietary_recommendations, flaxseed_oil, food sources, Health Issues, inflammation, Jill M. Norris, Michael Clare-Salzler, Norway, oil, omega_3s, researcher, sunflower oil, Uncategorized

My wife has been taking high dosages of aspirin tow or three times a day for the last few months as she had some clots show up on her legs and the doctor, after having me give her injections to thin her blood, gave her this prescrition for a generic type of aspirin derivative that she is taking. As always I scoured the internet to find more information on taking aspirin and I have copied the following info from both Wikipedia and the FDA in case you have a simeilar interest. The wiki info is an outline on aspirin itself and the FDA info is a bunch of questions and answers about aspirin.

Aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid (acetosal) is a drug in the family of salicylates, often used as an analgesic (against minor pains and aches), antipyretic (against fever), and anti-inflammatory. It has also an anticoagulant (”blood-thinning”) effect and is used in long-term low-doses to prevent heart attacks.

Low-dose long-term aspirin irreversibly blocks the formation of thromboxane A2 in platelets, producing an inhibitory effect on platelet aggregation, and this blood-thinning property makes it useful for reducing the incidence of heart attacks. Aspirin produced for this purpose often comes in 75 or 81 mg dispersible tablets and is sometimes called “Junior aspirin”. High doses of aspirin are also given immediately after an acute heart attack. These doses may also inhibit the synthesis of prothrombin and may therefore produce a second and different anticoagulant effect.

Several hundred fatal overdoses of aspirin occur annually, but the vast majority of its uses are beneficial. Its primary undesirable side effects, especially in stronger doses, are gastrointestinal distress (including ulcers and stomach bleeding) and tinnitus. Another side effect, due to its anticoagulant properties, is increased bleeding in menstruating women. Because there appears to be a connection between aspirin and Reye’s syndrome, aspirin is no longer used to control flu-like symptoms in minors.[1]

Aspirin was the first discovered member of the class of drugs known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), not all of which are salicylates, though they all have similar effects and a similar action mechanism.
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Tags: A. Consumers, A. Patients, acetyl group, aches, allergy, angina pectoris, angioplasty, arthritis, Arthur Eichengr, Arthur Eichengrun, aspirin, aspirin products, Asthma, Bayer, body systems, British Columbia, bypass, Cerebral Ischemia, Charles Frederic Gerhardt, chemical, chemical structure, chemist, chest pain, chills, coronary artery disease, Cox, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Derek W. Gilroy, diarrhea, Egypt, fda, fever, first discovered member, Friedrich Bayer & Co., Gerhardt, Germany, Glasgow, headaches, hearing loss, heart attack, heart attacks, Henri Leroux, Heyden Company, high blood pressure, Hoffmann, hydroxyl functional groups, ibuprofen, ISIS, John Robert Vane, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, ketoprofen, kidney disease, London, Michigan, myocardial infarctions, osteoarthritis, pain, pains, pharmaceuticals industry, pharmacist, physician, pleurisy, Raffaele Piria, research assistant, researcher, Reye's syndrome, rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis, Royal College of Surgeons in London, selective inhibitors, spondylarthropathies, stroke, Stroke Prevention, strokes, Sumeria, systemic lupus erythematosus, thrombus, tinnitus, transient ischemic attack, treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, United Kingdom, United States, University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, unstable angina, Walter Sneader